Act 3 - is it really that bad?

[Antimatter]

This has been an important topic for me for a long while. Some context.

My own experience now when I actually play Act 3: yes, and no.

There are some really fun quests and moments. But also, some things feel unfinished.

I'd say the game would benefit from quests that do not include combat or solely rely on winning dialogue rolls to convince someone/investigate something. You know, quests like a proper ball in Dragon Age: Inquisition, getting into a painting in Oblivion, visiting a wedding in The Witcher 3.

I don't get the feeling of a live city from Baldur's Gate, more like a map with quests on it. Maybe the engine's inability to provide night & day cycles and thus not showing us the real day-to-day life of its inhabitants has to do with that. It worked better when BG3 was a "road movie" and we just had to go from place to place. Now when it's a bit like an open world, it's missing the feeling of being alive.

 

[Cahir]

I absolutely don't agree that act 3 is total disaster, it has some really fantastic moments, not worse than in act 1 and 2. There are couple of quests spanning throughout the whole act, that started in act 1. Some are multi-layered and even connected with other, equally complex quests

However, there are some parts that are clearly not quite as polished and others that are visibly cut, like the whole Astarion's quest, specifically Cazador's mansion.

I didn't have a feeling the city is not alive, specifically compared to other similar games. I do agree that lack of day/night cycle is diminishing the whole experience quite a bit, but I think this kind of bustling city experience is much easier to achieve in action rpg, open world type of game, like TW3, CP2077 or Assassin's Creed games. I haven't experienced this kind of feeling in any crpg game so far. To be honest, BG3 was the closest to get this feeling so far.

My first impression, when I reached the city, was that there are many no-name, non interactable NPCs, but this was just an impression, in reality there are loads of named NPCs, who has something to say, even if it's just a one-liner.